This image taken by expedition doctor Andrew Peacock of www.footloosefotography.com on December 30, 2013 shows the ship MV Akademik Shokalskiy still stuck in the ice off East Antarctica, as it waits to be rescued. (AFP Photo)

A Russian-built ship stranded in the Antarctic ice has started moving away from the ice fields after a change of wind cleared its path. A Chinese icebreaker, which was caught herself on the way to rescue the vessel, has already reached clear waters.

The ‘Akademik Shokalskiy’ research ship, which left the port of
Bluff in New Zealand on December 8 with 52 passengers and 22 crew
members onboard, got stuck in Antarctic ice on December 24.
Chinese, Australian and French icebreakers tried to rescue her,
but none of them managed, and the Chinese vessel herself got
stuck.

The passengers on the vessel were evacuated last Thursday by
helicopter to the Australian Aurora Australis, while crew members
stayed behind.

Luckily, as the weather changed the danger threatening the
trapped vessels decreased.

“The situation is favorable now. First, the wind changed
direction from an Easterly to a North-Westerly, which changed the
direction of ice drift. A large crack formed in the ice, and the
ship is now navigating it,” Yury Volgov, director of the
Far-Eastern Hydrometeorology Research Institute, which owns the
Academician Shokalsky, told media.

The ship may escape the clutches of the ice field quite soon,
ship captain Igor Kiselyov said.

“We are sailing at low speed, changing courses. We’ve
traveled 20 miles so far. It’s difficult so far, with dense fog
and visibility no further than 500 meters. But the ice is thinner
and broken here, so we’re moving,” he said.

Favorable winds also helped Chinese icebreaker, Xue Long, (Snow
Dragon), which attempted to reach the Russian vessel, but got
stuck in the ice as well. The Xue Long's movement became
blocked by a drifting kilometer-long iceberg, which
constantly changed position.

According to Xinhua news agency, the ship with 101 crew on board
has already reached waters free from ice.

American vessel the Polar Star, the US Coast Guard's only active
heavy polar icebreaker, was
sent to the rescue as well and is expected to arrive at the
end of this week.